Riwenne & the Bionic Witches

by Kristen S. Walker

  Amena nodded. “Exactly. So there’s an entire base of operations left abandoned where we used to live. The five of us wouldn’t draw much attention to it, if we lie low.” She turned to the map on the wall and pointed to a lake near the border between the Central and Northern Provinces. “I’m sure we can hide the airship in the jungle somewhere, far enough in that it can’t be spotted from the air. Then we do some scouting in the area, just like old times.” She winked at Deryt.

  I opened my mouth to protest against more stealing, but I’d just given her control of our plans. So I said, “Whatever you think is best, leader.”

  “We’ll wait until it’s dark before we take off again, just in case.” She looked around the room. “So long as everyone else agrees? I mean, you always took our opinions into consideration, Riwenne. I don’t want to be the kind of leader who just barks orders.”

  I shrugged. “Like I said, I have no idea what to do. I’ll follow where you want to go.” I looked to the front of the ship where Kyra had stormed off. “Someone should go ask Kyra, I guess.”

  Janera nodded but didn’t move. “Maybe it would be better coming from you, Amena. Since you know more about it.”

  Amena looked at Deryt, who waved her on. “Okay. If she has no objections, we’ll make ready to fly tonight.” She turned and left the room. Tika and Uqra both flew after her.

  I swallowed another gulp of milk and pushed my dishes away. “Thanks for the food, but I’ll go lay down again. Call me if you need me.”

  Janera rubbed my shoulder, then stood up with the dishes. “Alright, get some rest.”

  Sleeping was easy. I pushed all thoughts out of my brain and closed my eyes, and the darkness surrounded me again. Maybe I could sleep while everyone else fixed things. There didn’t seem to be much I could do, so I could just stay out of the way.

  5

  Into the Jungle

  I woke up to Kyra shaking my shoulders. “Riwenne, it’s time to go,” she said, sounding impatient. “We’re leaving the airship here.”

  I looked out the window, but all I saw was green. “Are we in Amena’s village already?”

  “No, we’re hiding the airship in the jungle.” Kyra threw some clothes at me. “Get dressed. It’s a hike to the village.” She left the room, closing the door so I could have some privacy.

  I couldn’t use magic to change my outfit however I wanted. I sorted through the jumble of clothing items Kyra had left me. They all looked cheap and factory-made, but at least they were new and unworn. Didn’t want to know where we’d gotten them. None of them were cute—just blouses and trousers in drab colors. I guess hiking through the jungle didn’t call for fashionable outfits, but it felt weird not wearing a skirt. I found the clothes that fit my small frame and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

  When I stepped into the galley, Amena handed me a heavy backpack. I struggled to lift it “What’s this for?”

  Amena gestured to the others. “We’re all carrying one. We’d risk leading other people back to this ship if we came here, so we have to pack all the gear we’ll need.”

  I looked around at the others. They had bags of their own, all of them in dull colors just like their practical hiking clothes. That didn’t explain why we had to carry everything ourselves. “There’s got to be an easier way. Can’t we just, like, put it in a cart or something?”

  “Even if we had a cart and something to pull it, there’s no road.” Amena nodded to the door. “You’ll see when we’re outside.”

  Deryt opened the door in the front and Amena hopped out. We must have landed. But instead of following, I stopped and looked around the galley which was stripped bare of all food and dishes.

  “What about breakfast?” I called. “I can’t carry this heavy bag on an empty stomach.”

  Kyra glanced back over her shoulder. “You could have had breakfast with the rest of us if you’d woken up earlier, but there’s no time now.” She turned and left the ship.

  Janera came over to me and leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Don’t worry, I made you a sandwich to eat on the way.” She pulled a paper-wrapped packet out of her pocket and handed it to me. “Keep your strength up.”

  I thanked her with a smile and tucked the sandwich away. At least Janera wasn’t mad at me, although it seemed like everyone else was.

  I followed the others outside. Deryt came last behind me and locked the airship’s door.

  The jungle outside was enormous. Trees towered above us, full of flowering vines. Smaller trees and bushes packed in every space between them. Quilla’s Revenge looked tiny by comparison, especially when I looked up and realized the envelope was hanging empty on its structure.

  “Whoa!” I took a step back, craning my neck to see higher. “What happened to the balloon? How will we ever get it to fly again?”

  “Relax.” Deryt gestured to the top of the gondola. “We emptied the gas back into the ship’s tanks for now, but we can fill it again if we need to fly.”

  “O-okay.” I stared for a moment longer, but it was too complicated for me to figure out. I turned around and looked at the surrounding jungle. There was no road, just like Amena said. I guess that was part of what made it a secret hiding spot. But there had to be a path at least, right?

  Amena checked a compass from her pocket and turned to point the way. “Jabin Village should be in that direction.” She nodded to Deryt and Janera. “Which one of you wants first turn at the lead?”

  Deryt hefted one machete and handed a second to Janera. “I’ll start, since I’ve done this before. You guard our backs.”

  I looked from the heavy blades to the forest and shivered. “Guard us from what? You said there were no people nearby.”

  “Wild animals.” Janera gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, most of them will avoid us if we make enough noise to let them know we’re coming. At least, that’s what they said.” She nodded at Deryt and Amena.

  This was all getting so complicated. If the point of the rebel village was that it was hidden, why didn’t we just land the airship and hide it there? Hacking our way through underbrush was a lot of extra work.

  But Amena was the leader now, and the others seemed to agree with her, so we went along with her instructions. Deryt took the lead, cutting at the dense plants of the jungle so we could follow behind him. Amena walked behind him, checking her compass to make sure we stayed on the right course, with Uqra and Tika riding on her backpack. Kyra followed her, asking questions about the jungle and how the rebels had lived out here for so long. Her attitude toward Amena had changed since we found out she wasn’t just a famous singer—she seemed impressed by everything Amena knew.

  I struggled to keep up with the others, which forced Janera to a slow pace since she was in the back with me. I could walk for miles in the city, but that was on paved roads. In the jungle, the ground was uneven and covered with rocks and tree roots that tripped me up. The humidity made me feel like I was trying to push through a thick, wet blanket, and I was sweating within minutes. Deryt was doing his best to cut through the undergrowth with his machete, but there were still branches reaching out for me on either side, full of thorns and sticky sap.

  “I hope everything still works in this abandoned village,” I muttered to Janera. “When we get there, we will need a long bath.”

  Janera swatted at a bug and grimaced. “That’s for sure. It’s cool to see where Amena and Deryt grew up, huh? I’ve never been outside the capital, but I’ve always wondered what life is like on the mainland. Do you think they have huge houses and gardens with all of this space?”

  I wanted to shrug, but the backpack was weighing down my shoulders. “I don’t see why not.” I sighed. “If I had a huge house, I’d have a whole room just for books, like a personal library. I’d line the wall with bookshelves and fill it with comfy chairs.”

  Janera grinned. “Ooh, I like that idea. Like Turn the Page, except all the books would be yours.” The bookstore she named was where we’d met.
“And a big kitchen to cook in, with a wood-burning oven. I’ve never used a wood-burning oven before, but it’s supposed to be the best for things like bread.”

  I looked up at the enormous trees. Their branches wove so tightly together in the canopy that I couldn’t see the sky. “There’s all the wood you could ever want right here,” I said, but I kept my voice low, glancing ahead at the others. The first time I’d met Deryt, we’d had an argument about the differences between burning wood or using sunstones for power. I didn’t want to bring up a sore subject again.

  “Maybe I can make something special for dinner tonight,” Janera said. She looked around the jungle. “We should see if we can pick up any fresh food. Gathering our own fruits or hunting game would be easier than stealing. Hey, you guys,” she called, waving to the others at the front of the line. “What’s, like, good to eat out here?”

  Amena shot a look of disapproval over her shoulder. “We don’t have time to go traipsing around. It’s still two miles to the village, so save your strength.”

  Two miles didn’t sound that bad, but my muscles ached with every step. “We can’t carry anything else,” I muttered to Janera. “We should look for food later, though. It’s a good idea to do things for ourselves.”

  But it took the better part of the day to hike those two miles. A ravine blocked us at one point and had to go the long way around. Even stopping for lunch in the middle, I was tired and hungry. Janera switched places with Deryt in the afternoon, so I was stuck with him in the back. I couldn’t think of anything to say. Which was fine, because he didn’t seem to be in a talking mood. We were all conserving our energy for hiking.

  At last, we stumbled into a clearing. My heart sank when I saw Jabin Village. “This is it? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  There were maybe two dozen rough wooden buildings in the whole place, perched in the trees with narrow rope bridges to connect them. Most were no bigger than our airship’s gondola. If there had been gardens, they were overgrown now—the jungle was taking back the land. Climbing vines covered the structures.

  Inside, things were even worse. There weren’t sunstones or even gas lamps, just candlesticks, and we had to share out the candles from Amena’s pack. Janera’s wood-burning stoves looked way less exciting in person. The nearest clean water was from rainwater collection barrels that needed to be strained for bugs and debris, carried into a house, and heated over the stove—which took forever just to get enough hot water for tea.

  The air was cleaner above the ground, but not by much. And tree houses only protected us from some wild animals. Lizards, birds, and monkeys were nesting in many of the empty houses, and Deryt had to throw out a snake.

  “How do people live like this?” I groaned as we sat outside on a wooden porch looking over the clearing. They carted all the furniture off when the rebels left the village. Amena had found old blankets, which she strung up in one house for hammocks, but otherwise we had nothing.

  Amena and Deryt exchanged a knowing look. “Not easily,” Amena said with a sigh. “This is the most sparse, since this village is off the grid. But I’ve been in other villages, not hidden ones, which didn’t have much more. Even in the cities on the ground, there’re slums that don’t have running water or steam-powered conveniences.”

  Janera let out a low whistle. “I knew we had some things up in the floating capital that folks on the ground didn’t get, but I didn’t realize it was this different. Why doesn’t the government do more? Aren’t we supposed to be equal?”

  Deryt shrugged. “Some people fall through the cracks. Anyone who doesn’t want to follow all the rules, or just can’t keep up with their assigned jobs. And villages on the fringe never seem to get enough resources. The system doesn’t work for everybody like it’s supposed to.”

  Amena nodded. “People band together and help when the empire doesn’t do enough for ‘em. We find a way to live.” She looked around the village. “It’s a shame they had to abandon this, because we built every home here with our own hands. We worked hard to make this place.”

  “That’s so inspiring,” Kyra said, looking at Amena with shining eyes. “Do you know why they left?”

  Amena and Deryt shared another tense glance. “Um, well, there were some… complications with the nearby town,” she said. “There was fallout when a mission went wrong, and I guess they traced us back here.”

  “It wasn’t our mission that went wrong,” Deryt mumbled. “They were getting suspicious already, which is how they caught us. A group that size couldn’t have gone undetected forever.”

  I frowned. If the village needed to steal supplies to survive, that drew attention. Just another reason we should avoid theft. But I saw the way Kyra was looking at Amena. Like she was the coolest person in the world. I kept my mouth shut.

  Deryt stood up and stretched. “Time for me to get some rest. I’ll go wash up and then go to sleep.”

  I looked up at the sky, blinking in surprise. We had spent a long time hiking, but there were still hours of daylight left. Janera hadn’t even started making dinner yet. “You’re going to sleep now?”

  He yawned. “I was up half the night flying, and I’m sure I’ll have to spend time on watch tonight.” He grabbed a towel from his pack and walked off toward the trees.

  Amena stood up, too. “That’s a good idea. We’ll take turns bathing while dinner is cooking, and then everyone can get some rest. We’ll worry about next steps tomorrow.” She looked over at me. “Riwenne, since you got up last this morning, I think you should take the first watch.”

  “Um, okay,” I said. Staying up a little later didn’t sound that bad, and if we divided up the night watch amongst the five us, no one would have a long shift. I craned my neck to see where Deryt had disappeared to. “So is there, like, a bathhouse or something? Do we heat the water there?”

  Amena chuckled a little and shook her head. “No, it takes too long to heat enough water for hot baths. There’s a nice deep spot in the river not far that way. I’ll show you later, when Deryt’s finished. Let the boy have some privacy.”

  I ducked my head to hide my blush of embarrassment. Bathing outside in a cold river with fish and things in it? But I guess I should have expected that, given how rough everything else was. Maybe I could skip washing, but the hike through the jungle had left me filthy, and there was no magic to clean myself up with.

  I looked at Janera, hoping she’d at least find a way to make us some decent food. “Can I help with dinner?”

  “Sure.” Janera stood up and reached for our packs. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”

  6

  A Tough Mission

  We spent a restless night in Jabin Village, jumping at every strange noise. Then a long day in the jungle scavenging under Amena and Deryt’s instruction.

  Looking for food was much harder than I’d ever expected. Even though it rained year-round and everything grew like crazy, it wasn’t like there was fruit hanging from every tree. You had to know where to look, and figure out which plants were edible, and carry everything around while roaming all over the place, just like hiking.

  Deryt showed Janera how to set some traps and they caught a few scrawny birds. Overall, it didn’t feel like we ended up with much to show for our efforts.

  Then it was time for us to steal the rest of the supplies we needed. Amena laid out her plan in simple terms—we’d head into the nearby town of Pisan once it was dark and scope out the warehouses there.

  “It’s not a big town, but they have an airship depot that collects deliveries for the cities,” Amena said, pointing to a rough map she’d sketched out for us. “We can’t wait and see when the biggest shipments will arrive, so we’ll just have to make do with whatever’s there right now. But the five of us won’t need a lot, and they won’t be expecting us.”

  I looked at the layout of the town’s warehouse district. She’d drawn it from memory, even though she hadn’t been there in months. She seemed very familiar with the ar
ea. “This is the same place you were breaking into when you got caught?”

  Amena pursed her lips together. “Well, yes. But I’ve broken in there many times without being caught. Like I said, they won’t be expecting us, so I’m not worried.”

  Her life was totally different from the biography I’d read about her—living in this rural village, helping to steal from the empire, part of the rebellion. She seemed nothing like the famous singer I’d idolized for months. But since Deryt and the birds seemed to agree with everything she said, and Kyra hung on her every word, I couldn’t say anything against her. So I bit my tongue and did my best to go along with her plan.

  “Try to get some rest so you’ll be sharp tonight,” Amena said.

  At least I could get behind any plan that involved taking a nap. I curled up in my hammock and slept, despite the jungle noises outside. All the physical labor was sapping my energy.

  That night, we dressed in dark clothes and followed Amena into Pisan. Fortunately, this time we walked on a dirt road that wasn’t too rough even considering none had used it in months. It went uphill into cleaner air. The backpacks we carried were empty, so we could fill them up. The return trip would be downhill, but with more to carry and back into the smog.

  Pisan was hard to judge in the dark—and it was a lot darker than the city. There were a few gaslamps here and there to light up the streets, but there were no businesses open late, and most of the houses were dark. Amena explained it was a farming community, so the locals went to bed early and got up before the sun to start on their chores. The temple was so small and ordinary that I almost missed it in the middle of the other buildings.

  The warehouse district had more lights and guards on patrol, but they were still far enough apart that there were plenty of gaps to slip between them if we timed it right. Problem was, a huge wall surrounded the entire area. Thanks to their magical strength, the others jumped over it onto the nearest warehouse roof—and in the blink of an eye, I was standing alone on the ground outside.